狡滑 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

jiǎo cunning

Phonosemantic compound. 犭 represents the meaning and 交 represents the sound.

Components

犭 Meaning component

quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

交 Sound component

jiāo to cross, to mix

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang		kreːwʔ
Unicode	gǎu

說文解字

少狗也。从犬交聲。匃奴地有狡犬，巨口而黑身。

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

huá, hua slip, slide

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 骨 represents the sound.

Components

氵 Meaning component

shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

骨 Sound component

gǔ, gú bone

Change in sound

滑 and 骨 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
滑 *Nə-gˤrut
骨 *kˤut

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	hweat	Nə-gˤrut	slippery

說文解字

《說文》：“滑，利也。从水，骨聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

狡 jiǎo cunning

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

滑 huá, hua slip, slide

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

jiǎo cunning

huá, hua slip, slide